Laura Kilty

I’m honoured to be part of this mix tape celebrating Imbolc, created by The Department of Energy

“The first release from The Department of Energy is inspired by the tributaries and tribulations of Cork’s Lee Valley. This Landscape Mixtape contains potcheen anecdotes, airborne survey planes, archive material, drowned houses, hard ambience, alluvial oak woods, unidentified flying objects, a lost mp3, a broken wav, 1980’s radio, 2020 visions, fast eddies, sloe meanders, preliminary research, semi-state bodies, statements of intent, folklore, feathered friends and the knowledge of salmon.

In the 1950’s the ESB flooded parts of the Lee Valley, when they built two hydroelectric dams to power Cork city. Gerry O’Riordan’s memories of this event (interviewed by Dr Richard Scriven for his Cork Is The Lee podcast) form part of the mixtape, alongside layers of local field recordings made by the Department of Energy over the past 12 months and extracts from some 39 year old cassettes. Have you ever noticed how a fast flowing stream sounds like environmental tape hiss?

Recently resurfaced tracks by DOE members (Mercury.mp3 & Borderland.wav) sit next to newer arrangements by Local Gods, all counterpointed by two fathoms-deep meditations from LAIR“⁠

“The Department of Energy was inspired by a GAA pitch, a white quartz standing stone, an electrical station and a stream. That was February last year and since then we’ve made recordings, taken photographs and just sat and listened, all over the Lee Valley.

That raw material has been shaped into a Landscape Mixtape for your listening pleasure. It will be publicly streaming this Saturday – Brigid’s day. We’ll have our first physical release on the first of May. And something to mark every Celtic festival thereafter.”